Willpower simplest effective secondary what is the simplest effective primary?

[Yipp]

So... I asked around... and everyone says Willpower is the simplest effective secondary around.

 

So what is the simplest effective primary?

 

By simple I mean no "must use Eagle Claw then you have 2.7 seconds of buff to min/max your rotation" requirement.

 

I have a preference for ST over AOE, with survivability more important than killing faster.

 

Thanks in advance for the input.

[Murcielago]

Fire is pretty simple, mostly ST.

[Bloodofcaine]

So... I asked around... and everyone says Willpower is the simplest effective secondary around.

 

So what is the simplest effective primary?

 

By simple I mean no "must use Eagle Claw then you have 2.7 seconds of buff to min/max your rotation" requirement.

 

 

 

  Honestly you can play any of the primaries and they can be summed up as simple. The stuff you're mentioning here is usually done by absolute obsessives who like to time everything down to a science for maximum dps, it is by no means necessary for enjoying your power picks or being able to tackle most of the content that is thrown at ya in this game. In most scenarios, especially when teaming up for regular content, stuff will die so fast you won't have time to worry about rotations. That said, dark melee is a solid choice, it hits hard and its attacks flow together nicely (specifically smite, life drain, midnight grasp) it can also buff its own damage to pretty nasty levels via soul drain. It's a single target set so it fits your style there.

[Hopeling]

I'm going to vote War Mace. There are no power interactions and no fancy mechanics to keep track of. You just hit things, and they fall down, and after doing that a few times they stop getting back up.

[Yipp]

Thanks for all the replies so far its been great.

 

I am familiar with Dark ran a dark/dark brute... but hated fury mechanic and shadow maul animation frustrated me, rest of dark is solid... pondering....

 

Besides Fire and War Mace.... is Katana or staff just as reasonable a choice.... meaning with a few exceptions like Titan weapons (endurance) or MA (benefits more from min/max) the rest are fairly "simple & effective".

 

Still with simple in mind... I have a Knockback/Knockdown question; Looking at Battle Axe, many of its powers have KnockDown and pines says its 0.67 KB if I slot them with all force feedback it rises to 1.8 KB... what does that actually mean? What mobs can it Knockdown that it could not with KB 0.67? The reason I am asking is it would be funny as heck to have a casual melee guy that walks into a room and keeps bosses & elite bosses (not AV's...) on their rears... knocked down :)

[marcussmythe]

Titan, Street Justice, Savage Melee, Kinetic Melee, Psionic Melee, Martial Arts, Dual Blades, Staff, and Radiation Melee (I may be forgetting something) all have some sort of 'mechanic', be it Momentum, Combo Points, Combos, Wierd Buildup, Inspiration, Contamination, Stances, etc. etc. etc.  Some are more demanding than others.

 

Dark Melee has a hint of one, in that its buildup is situation (reliant on crowds)

Claws kinda has one, inasmuch as you want to keep Follow-Up in your rotation and try to keep it up a lot (this is very small)

 

 

So, that leaves:

Battleaxe

Broadsword

Electrical Melee

Fire Melee

Ice Melee

Katana

Spines

War Mace

 

Of those, the ones that draw my attention are Fire, Elec, Ice, Spines, and Mace.

 

 

[Yipp]

Thank you very much Marcussmythe! I will look at each one of those in detail

[Hopeling]

Katana is definitely a straightforward set. The only things you really have to 'worry' about is lining up enemies for Golden Dragonfly (but if you don't, it's still a solid single-target attack), and keeping Divine Avalanche up when you want it - but that's easy if it's simply part of your attack chain.

 

I haven't played Staff. It has three stances, and a combo-ish mechanic, but I'm not sure how fiddly that is in actual play.

[Rokkeb]

Claws wants to keep follow up stacks rolling, katana/broadsword wants to keep def buff rolling, staff, street justice, dual blades, and savage all have combo mechanics. TW has momentum, Psy his proc watching. Rad has contamination to watch.

 

Spines, Elec, Fire, Mace, Axe are the most straightforward I would say. 

 

But every set has an optimal rotation for max ST or AoE dmg, if you just want to faceroll and hit what ever when ever, then just pick one and go with it.

[DSorrow]

Having just leveled up a Rad Melee, I'd say it's also very straight forward. I treat Contamination as an occasional bonus rather than playing around it and it usually works just fine. Basically it just allows me to jump into a mob, hit Atom Smasher and start wailing on the boss, then lieutenants and finally finish off all minions in one Atom Smasher because they're typically very much softened up by the initial Atom Smasher and any Contamination from bosses and LTs. All this goes to say that it's nowhere near as involved as combos or Momentum and more akin to Criticals.

[Yipp]

Great feedback thank you so very much!

 

I just went on test server and slotted Knockback on all Battle axe abilities to see if they stayed kd but longer.... alas they became kb.

 

I have narrowed down my choices to War Mace & Electric.... so now I shall write my bio and whichever bio I think is better will be born!

 

Thank you all

 

PS.... while I have you all here,,,, Which skills do I skip in Willpower, War Mace and Electric Melee?

[Murcielago]

Titan, Street Justice, Savage Melee, Kinetic Melee, Psionic Melee, Martial Arts, Dual Blades, Staff, and Radiation Melee (I may be forgetting something) all have some sort of 'mechanic', be it Momentum, Combo Points, Combos, Wierd Buildup, Inspiration, Contamination, Stances, etc. etc. etc.  Some are more demanding than others.

 

Dark Melee has a hint of one, in that its buildup is situation (reliant on crowds)

Claws kinda has one, inasmuch as you want to keep Follow-Up in your rotation and try to keep it up a lot (this is very small)

 

 

So, that leaves:

Battleaxe

Broadsword

Electrical Melee

Fire Melee

Ice Melee

Katana

Spines

War Mace

 

Of those, the ones that draw my attention are Fire, Elec, Ice, Spines, and Mace.

Good list!

[Hopeling]

PS.... while I have you all here,,,, Which skills do I skip in Willpower, War Mace and Electric Melee?

In WP, the last two powers are optional. Fast Healing isn't transformative, and can be put off until pretty late in the build if needed.

 

In Mace, you can skip Bash. In Elec/, you can skip one of the first two punches and Jacob's Ladder. Confront is of course always skippable. You probably want everything else.

[Rockfall]

Its worth noting that, if your secondary has you covered, you don't need to keep parry/divine avalanche up. In fact you don't even have to take those powers (they are low damage). I wouldn't disqualify kat just because of that. I would disqualify bs because its kinda ... lackluster compared to katana, which is funny since originally that was the other way around (until devs revisited katana back in around-early-cov era, I think?)

 

WM is good stuff.

 

If you weren't a scrapper I would suggest stone melee. Similarly crunchy feeling to WM. Not as good on the damage side, but VERY survivable because of the KD/KU in the set. Good AoE radiuses, so you don't have to be real particular about aiming them.

[Croax]

Hello OP.

 

Maybe it is too late but reading this thread i was thinking maybe SS/WP brute is just what you are looking for. You just have to watch rage and begining with lvl 32 and the Force Feedback proc, you can Footstomp every 5 seconds. Casuallay cc a whole spawn throwing out knockout blows for huge damage. Just ignore the fact that you play a brute and not a min max super scrapper.

 

Jump in and SMASH!!!.

 

You really should give it a try i am having a blast.

[Yipp]

Thanks all!

 

When I work out my 1st draft of a build I will post it for feedback.

 

If there is a well known War Mace Willpower build for reference someone could point me to that would be most appreciated.

[EldritchDrake]

I'm going to vote War Mace. There are no power interactions and no fancy mechanics to keep track of. You just hit things, and they fall down, and after doing that a few times they stop getting back up.

I agree with this, mace is heavily over looked. Dark is a simply yet easy and solid damage but more dot heavy. Titan is the overall best damage for scrappers but has a bit of gimmick mechanic.

 

If you just want something that's just good and literally no gimmicks at all period, mace.

[Jaynen]

Katana feels pretty good, has a decent aoe and ST chain

[Yipp]

I am set on War Mace/ Willpower now... Thank everyone who provided their advice it was very helpful.

 

I will post my prospective build when I have hit level 35 in game

[HelenCarnate]

Basically low mag kb (under 1 IIRC) will knock something down. Higher level mobs have that mag reduced but still be knocked down. Conversely it increases on lower level stuff so those may get tossed back regardless. Also clockwork and some minions are weak against kb and tend to go flying even if they are equal level.